Healthy Vegan Banana Bread

Would you ever guess that this loaf of banana bread is healthy?!
Not only is it vegan and made from whole-wheat flour, but it does not contain any refined sugar, oil, or dairy!

I love bananas, in fact I think they are my favorite fruit (at the moment)!
I love them right out of the peel, dried as chips, frozen and dipped in chocolate, sliced on my almond butter toast, blended in my smoothies, and of course hot and gooey in my banana bread.

I had a huge bunch of bananas that were about to go bad yesterday, and my freezer was already filled with a bag of frozen bananas, so I decided to experiment with my very first vegan baking recipe from Love Food Eat. I love vegan baking because it’s always a challenge to substitute dairy products, and you can lick the entire bowl of batter without getting sick! While I was at it, I wanted to attempt to make the healthiest banana bread possible, without the use of oil, butter, shortening, eggs, or sugar!


Vegan Banana Bread

2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
2 cups very ripe mashed banana
1/3 cup Medjool dates – finely chopped
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed + 6 tbsp water
1 Tbsp sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a small bowl, combine ground flaxseed with water. Set aside and stir occasionally until it forms into a sticky/gooey texture. In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon). Mash the banana and chop dates. Add mashed banana, dates, and flaxseed mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until it turns into a dough. Lightly coat a baking pan in nonstick cooking spray. Pour the dough into the pan and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 55-60 minutes until edges are golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

Avo Fruit Smoothie

I am still hooked on fresh juice since participating in my Juice Challenge. I made a Rainbow Sherbet juice this past Monday, and I was craving it the instant I woke up yesterday. I wanted to try making it into a smoothie, so I combined the fresh juice with some avocado and ice cubes and blended it up in my Vitamix. It turned out rich, and creamy, and kept me full and energized until lunch!

I love throwing avocados in my smoothies because it adds a dose of healthy fats, fiber, tons of  nutrients, and adds thickness. I’m a huge fan of thick smoothies, so avocados are always my go to when I want to get a creamy consistency.


Avo Fruit Smoothie
serves 1

2 fuji apples
½ lime
¼ pineapple
¼ large cucumber
1/4 Hass avocado
5 ice cubes

Juice the apples, lime, pineapple, and cucumber. Combine fresh juice with avocado and ice cubes in a blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy cold.

Tomato & Lemon Pepper Toast

It’s Toast Tuesday!

Today is a variation of one of my old favorite treats. I used to love bagels with cream cheese, tomato and lemon pepper in high school. Nowadays, I still enjoy this flavor combination, but I’ve swapped the bagel for sprouted grain toast and traded in the regular cream cheese for a fat-free version.


Tomato & Lemon Pepper Toast

Serves 1

1 slice Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Low Sodium Bread
1 Tbsp nonfat cream cheese
2 slices tomato
lemon pepper to taste

Toast the bread, spread with cream cheese, top with tomato slices, and a sprinkle of lemon pepper.

Juice Challenge: Broken

I wanted to start off by saying happy motivation monday, and thank you to all of my new and “old” readers! I have no idea what happened last night, but my website went viral and I got THOUSANDS of views and a rush of emails in my inbox in a matter of minutes! I’m so happy that people like my blog enough to share it with others, it means so much to me!

I went to my friend Behnaz’s house yesterday for craft day and in her refrigerator among piles of healthy fruits & vegetables, was a carrot cake that she had made from scratch the night before. It was just sitting there staring at me with it’s cute decorative frosting carrots perfectly drawn on top. I just couldn’t resist a slice of her amazing cake. After all, it is a vegetable, right? After 5 days of my Juice Challenge, the fast was broken! Never fear, the juicing will continue with “A Juice A Day In May!”

I have a weakness for Behnaz’s cooking. She makes amazing Persian dishes from her family’s recipes and occasionally the most intricate and perfectly decorated cakes. I was worried about how my body would react to solid food after a 5 day liquid diet, but my tummy loved that little slice of heaven, and I’m glad I was able to enjoy it without the guilt of ending my juice challenge.

Later that evening, I sat down with my new Gingergrass & Lemon candle, From A to P juice, and new book Intuitive Eating, by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD and Elyse Resch, MS, RD, FADA. I have had a few readers suggest this book to me, and have read countless reviews by other bloggers, so I thought it was about time to buy it.

This reminds me so much of my dear family friend Karen. If anyone had a problem or was searching for an answer for anything, she would have the perfect book for it! If Karen could see this blog, I’m sure she would have dropped this book off on my doorstep by now! Intuitive Eating offers a new eating approach to free yourself from food prison to help yourself become at peace with food to reach the weight you were meant to be. I’m not much of a reader, but I have become passionate about healthy living and how food can change our body & health, so this book looks very intriguing to me. I will be reading this book in my free time, and I’ll keep you guys posted on new things that I learn!

Question: Has anyone read Intuitive Eating before?

When my usual snack time came around, I experimented with a new juice to curb my cravings. Not to toot my own horn, but TOOT TOOT! This juice was AMAZING! New favorite for sure, and the color was absolutely gorgeous!


Rainbow Sherbet
serves 1

2 fuji apples
½ lime
¼ pineapple
¼ large cucumber

Extract your fresh juice over ice and enjoy cold.

I have noticed a huge change in my mood since starting my juice challenge, which is a big change from where I was last Monday after returning from San Francisco. I actually feel really happy today, and feel a lot healthier overall. Although I still get cravings for coffee, I feel like I have tons of energy from the micronutrient rich juices. I am thinking about sticking with a few juices throughout the day but want to start incorporating smoothies for a little while since the outcome has been pretty positive!

Juice Challenge: Day 5

Hola Conejitos!
Feliz Shrinko de Mayo!
I hope everyone is celebrating with tons of raw heart healthy avos!

Now onto the Juicinggggg! Day 5 flew by!
I had so much fun playing with my new Breville juicer last night that I made a Shrinko de Mayo fiesta of rainbow juices! I loved ALL of my juices today! WOOOO!

Emotions & Hunger: 
Drinking only juice is getting progressively easier. Maybe because I jut got a new juicer and am so pumped to use it? I’ve been feeling great physically, and love not having to drink 2 cups of coffee to get through the day. I will definitely be incorporating juice in my regular diet because it makes me feel healthy and refreshed. I have also noticed that my skin has been more dewy and fresh than usual. All of these micronutrients I’ve been taking in seem to be helping!


For The Love Of Kale
makes 1 serving

5 carrots
2 small red apples
6 kale leafs

Spring Beet
makes 1 serving

6 carrots
1 fui apple
6 sprigs of parsley
1 small beet

From A to P
serves 1

1 apple
8 carrots
6 parsley sprigs

Sherbet Lemonade
makes 1 serving

2 golden delicious apples
1/2 lemon

Mean Green
makes 2 servings

6 Kale Leaves
1 Cucumber
4 Celery Stalks
2 Green Apples
1/2 Lemon
1 small piece of ginger

Juice Critique:
For The Love Of Kale: I had an overload of green juice in the past couple of days, so I wanted to make some sweeter juices that still incorporate veggies. I love the combination of apple & carrots. It was so sweet that I could’t even taste the kale!

Spring Beet: Ok you guys, I am trying so hard to use up the rest of the beets left in the fridge and well… I did it. The first beet drink that I actually liked! I started with my favorite new base of apples and carrots, and then added in some beet and parsley. It was sweet and fresh and I actually loved it! So glad I didn’t give up on the beets!

From A to P: Apples, carrots, & parsley oh my! my favorite sweet combo and some parsley, yummmm!

Sherbet Lemonade: DELICIOUS! I was so happy with the outcome of this one. It tasted like rainbow sherbet! This would make such a yummy summer cocktail over ice! R&R: Refreshing & Raw. Mmmm!

Mean Green: This is Joe Cross’ original juice from the film “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead.” I had the same reaction that most taste testers had in the film: “This isn’t too bad!” Considering all of the greenery that is incorporated in this juice, I was worried, but the lemon, apple, and ginger added a great balance to the veggie taste. I’m not sure if I could drink this juice 6 times a day for 60 days like Joe, but I did like it!

Loved these juices so much, I cannot wait to make more!

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